Bungie Showcases New Loadout Feature Coming To Destiny 2

Buildcrafting is officially coming to Destiny 2 with the launch of Lightfall and with it comes a slew of changes to mods, mechanics, and the customization you will have on your Guardian.

When Lightfall launches, every player is going to have the ability to start crafting their new builds. Already, Bungie has unlocked every mod availiable in the game so players can experiment with them pre-Lightfall. After Lightfall launches, Players will need to be Guardian Rank 6 to fully unlock all mods. Bungie states that as long as you played Destiny for "some time" you should start at Rank 6 when Lightfall launches.

Currently mods like Powerful Friends has Mod Energy types. Meaning if you wish to equip Powerful Friends to your armor you need to be equipping on an Arc Energy piece of armor. Starting in Lightfall, Bungie is removing all Mod Energy types and eliminating the need for different versions of the same armor. Bungie is also going to convert Combat Style mods to an extra mod slot while lowering the cost for mods in general on armor.

Armor Mods that focused on weapon benefits, such as Hand Cannon Loader, will now provide benefits to weapons based on their damage type.

The biggest change about Mod Application certainly comes with how Destiny 2 will utilize Artifact Mods going forward. Artifact mods will now be unlockable perks that will passively be applied to your loadouts and will no longer need to be slotted on armor. This will solve the pain point about needing to slot mods such as Anti-Barrier on your favorite weapons which always resulted in losing out on desired perks.

There are more plans around Energy types coming with Lightfall as well. Starting next season, Match Game will be removed from high-difficulty activities such as Grandmaster Nightfalls. This will be a huge improvement for Guardians that have optimal loadouts but always had to change their weapons because there were two Void shielded enemies in a Grandmaster when the rest were all Arc and Solar. Base shield resistance to non-matching damage types, across Destiny 2 is being increased by 50% and Bungie will have more on how Guardians can do more damage to non-matching damage types soon in the lead up to Lightfall.

As a lover of Grandmasters, my personal favorite change announced was the changes coming to Champions. Now, certain subclasses will intrinsically combat certain champion types.

Barrier Champions (Solar, Void, and Strand Counter)

When using volatile rounds from your weapon it will also pierce the barrier and stun the Champion. When a player is radiant, their attacks pierce Champion’s shields and stun them. Strand will also have a method of piercing barriers.

Overload Champions (Arc, Stasis and Void Counter)

Damaging an overload Champion by triggering the jolted condition stuns the Champion. Likewise, suppressing the Champion stuns them, as does slowing them with Stasis.

Unstoppable Champions (Arc, Solar, Stasis, and Strand Counter)

Blinding an Unstoppable Champion instantly stuns them. Encasing them in Stasis and then shattering it or triggering a Solar ignition on them likewise stuns them. Strand will also include an Unstoppable Champion counter.

Elemental Wells are also getting a big change for Guardians that use them. Going forward in Lightfall, some Elemental Well mods will transition to creating Orbs of Power. The mods that don't change that direction will now instead creating new Subclass specific items:

• Ionic Traces for Arc
• Firesprite for Solar
• Void Breaches for Void
• Stasis Shards will continue being used for Stasis
• Strand will also have an object that Bungie will share soon

Picking up any of these objects will grant ability energy or have other effects depending on your subclass build.

This new Elemental Well change will tie in closely with the changes coming to the Charged with Light mods. These two systems will be combined into a revamped systyem known as Armor Charge. The Armor Charge system functions as pointed out in the blog:

• Socketing an armor mod that uses the Armor Charge system gives you access to the system.
• The functionality of Taking Charge (picking up an Orb of Power to gain 1 stack of the charge) is now granted to you whenever you have any Armor Charge mod equipped.
• Many mods that previously created elemental wells or gave you stacks of Charged with Light have been converted to instead create an Orb of Power.
• You can now hold between 0 and 3 stacks of Armor Charge by default, which appears as a buff in the Status Effects area.
• By socketing chest armor mods (Charged Up), you can increase your maximum number of Armor Charge stacks as high as 6.
• Some mods provide a passive, ongoing benefit while you have any stacks of Armor Charge. When you have one of these armor mods equipped, every 10 seconds a stack of Armor Charge falls off if not consumed by something else.
• Players can extend this decay time by socketing the Extended Charge mod in the Class Item socket.
• For example, Font of Wisdom in the head socket will provide a bonus gain to intellect while you have any Amor Charge active.
• Some mods consume 1, 2, 3, or all stacks of Armor Charge on a particular trigger, granting you an instantaneous benefit when they do.
• A few other mods (Stacks on Stacks in the Leg socket, Powerful Friends and Radiant Light in the head socket, Time Dilation in the Class Item socket, etc.) can modify the Armor Charge system for you without providing you with a specific benefit while you have Armor Charge.
• Finishers will now consume Armor Charges and not dip into your Super energy.

With any big update does sadly also bring about some nerfs. Bungie stated that some mods will be decreased for the stat bonuses they give or ultimately removed all together. The most notable set of mods being removed is Warmind Cells. Warmind Cells were a dynamic way to change the battlefield in any situation and provided countless ways to out manuever enemies. When Lightfall launches, Warmind Cells will be left behind, removed, and no longer obtainable in game.  

There are certainly a lot of changes on the way for Lightfall and buildcrafting has shown us already a lot more than we were expecting. If you want to read the full blog for yourself head over to Bungie.net.

What do you think of the new loadout changes? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @Suttledge